Colossalcon 2013: Vacation-Con

The only Con that has birds, an indoor watermark, an arcade, and a pet detective...

This is my second year at Collosalcon and I have to say probably topped the first year! 

I had a chance to do more of everything this year, thanks to arriing thursday afternoon rather then Friday afternoon like last year. One of the first things I did was go to the indoor pool on Thursday, and went down the waterslides over and over. 

The carpool to Colossal included me, Alex, Vicky and Patrick, about 6 hours behind the wheel from TO. Parking is free at this con, so hoozah!

Let's start with the waterpark, no other con has this many cosplayers come to the waterpark in and out of costumes in such a large number! There was even a photoshoot Friday morning in the wavepool, and I haven't even heard of any camera casualties either! The advantage being the hotel being the con center so you don't have to go outside if you don't want to. Thursday and Friday were a bit chilly so the outdoor waterpark was closed, Saturday and Sunday however the weather was perfect. I even managed to get some sun on my face!

The con nails down all the staples to include a dealer's room, an artist alley (sometimes a little crowded), j-pop dances, panels, Q&A sessions, and a bunch more. The animal petting zoo is also a huge plus for cosplayers and photographers seeking out some wilderness with their cosplay shoots!

I had a good number of photoshoots over the weekend, and made sure not to overbook myself so I could enjoy the con stuff that was going on. I attended a funimation Q&A panel wich brought in some insightful points about the industry, I went to the friday j-pop dance for a bit, everybody was really into it! The waterpark and I met many times over the weekend.

I did not get a chance to go to the petting zoo last year, so I did that this year and definitely a fun place to check out some cool animals such as camels, goats, kangaroos parrots, etc... I also had my first Pina Colada courtesy of the aweome xHeeHeex and Hopie, it was really good thanks!

Having so many people in the hotel rooms is also a bonus as it creates opportunities to play board games (non-screen based games essentially). I played two new games, once which involved making our own anime show concept (Channel A), and another to find out if you were a spy...! (Resistence) Ended up that Anna and I were spies in the first round of 6 people, but I wasn't a spy in the second round of 8 people but people accused me anyways : ( Both were a fun way to spend some time with people at a con, even Kay Elysiam had a hard time keeping a straight face non-spy! We'll have to do more next year!

Can't say much other then that, but be sure to check out some of the photos I took from the Con. I'll be posting shoots sometime soon so keep an eye on those. I'll also have a video from the con as well in due time.

If you're on the fence of going to Colossalcon, I say go for it! You'll love it there!

Mike